Description

Set of the first 4 volumes (of 7) of the definitive edition of Montesquiou's works given by Georges Richard. The works,  identically bound in marbled silkare derived from FROM THE LIBRARY OF HENRI LAVEDAN. The first volume is dedicated to poem signed the other 3 are enriched with autograph letters signed.
Unnumbered copies on current paper (edition announced at 12 copies on Japon and 500 numbered copies on alfa paper reserved for subscribers to the complete edition.

Blue Hydrangeas
[Georges Richard], 1906
[1] pl, vii pp, [1] f, 395 pp, [1] f.

First volume illustrated with a portrait of the author after Laszlo.

LONG AUTOGRAPH ENVOIR SIGNED IN 12 VERS TO HENRI LAVEDAN dated 1908:

For Mr Henri Lavedan's copy

Because you approached me in my grief,
I have dedicated this place to you in a heart
Rebellious, wonderful, full of hatred,
On the other, goodness, grace and gentleness.

[...]

Like the 100 other poetic letters Montesquiou wrote for this new edition, the text is collected in The diaphanous words (p. 162), which appeared for the first time in the 6th volume of the collection (1910), following on from Red pearls.

The Bats
[Georges Richard], 1907
XI pp, [1] f, 421 pp, [1] f.

The book is enhanced by a AUTOGRAPH LETTER SIGNED TO HENRI LAVEDANdated October 1905, on bat letterhead, 4 pages, 125 x 180 mm:

I've wanted to write to you a hundred times.
Or rather, that's not saying enough; I wanted it, all the time.
I'm a man who wants to write to you.
Why haven't I done it yet?
No doubt because of the extreme circumspection with which we surround the things we consider important.

This letter appears in The Flower Chancellor: twelve stations of friendship (p. 266); however, the last page has been removed ("These two verses I offer you with my gratitude, and the attachment you have with a word, and, in an instant, created, for ever" )

The Chef of sweet smells
[Georges Richard], 1907
XIV pp, [1] f., 396 pp, [1] f.

The book is enhanced by a BEAUTIFUL AUTOGRAPH LETTER SIGNED to Henri Lavedan, dated 1905 (4 pages, 21 to 270 mm).

Dear Sir and friend,
You took one more grace in wanting the extension of your visit to be, on your part, the voice of an echo, and the nuance of a reflection. Both of them, entrusted by you, to give me back my coloured and sonorous image with pleasure.
I'm not surprised to hear that you're a charmer! A delicate and strong way of being that's becoming rarer by the day.
[...]
I saw young Roy. Is it a punishment, of this extinguished sun, that the superiority of his habit, on his face? The blue ribbon and the silver flowered sleeve seem to me more in the image of God than this face, a little swollen at first, by the creator, before the repairer got involved.
Goodbye, dear Sir. We should only ever associate with people we don't like, because then we won't regret not meeting them more often.
In the meantime, and in order to keep to this programme, when am I going to your place, and with you, to the other Bernard's, even though, following new victorious temptations, I must renounce the Satan of the trinket, the pomp of the past, and above all the works of Boucot, or Vincent.
I will be careful not to pass on to my cousin the beautiful phrase that you dedicated to her, and which is worthy of her, and of you. I am happy to feel Madame Lavedan's academic but kind hands, the pink and grey parasol, the colour of a stabbed dove. As for what you tell me about my 'academician', it is this very thing that is the setting you wish for her.
But the Gallery of Busts can mourn it; I'd rather keep it for the Gallery of Memories.
To you both, with all your hearts and minds.
Robert de Montesquiou.

The journey from dream to memory
[Georges Richard], 1908
XV pp, 476 pp, [1] f.

The book is enriched by a signed autograph visiting card ("[Le Comte Robert de Montesquiou-Fezensac]"). is delighted to welcome you, in spring, to the awakened dwelling, and is resigned to not dying") and a HAND-WRITTEN LETTER to Henri Lavedan (2 pages, 105 x 180 mm) :

Dear Sir,
Would you like to come for a moment with Madame Lavedan tomorrow, Wednesday, towards the end of the day?
You would still see this beautiful courtyard, these old plants, yet full of flowers, a few rooms, a few things, draped in melancholy, and already veiled, let's say buried like my feelings, and my thoughts; - in short, tender and poignant aspects of this house which, no doubt, is also going to die!

Ex-libris "G. de Berny" (Gérard de Berny, 1880-1957, politician) pasted to the upper spine of each volume.